Morphology Engineering of Luminescent Silica-coated Metal Nanoclusters Nanocomposite
Ultrasmall metal nanoclusters(NCs)have emerged as a novel class of functional nanomaterial,but usually suffer from poor stabilities,curtailing their further advance in those applied fields.Here we report a facile strategy in fabricating hybrid metal NCs@SiO2 nanospheres with tailorable structures via a modified Stöber method.By adjusting the hy-drolysis rate of SiO2 precursor,smaller sized Ag NCs@SiO2 solid spheres with rough surface and larger sized Ag NCs@SiO2 solid spheres with smooth surface could be prepared,while larger sized Ag NCs@SiO2 hollow spheres could be acquired by tuning the solvent polarity.The working principle of this strategy in tailoring the structure of Ag NCs@SiO2 spheres was studied,and the formation process of the Ag NCs@SiO2 hollow spheres was also moni-tored.The stability of Ag NCs was dramatically improved upon SiO2 coating.This strategy has been proved to be versatile,and can be applied for fabricating other metal NCs@SiO2 hybrids.This study may open a window in the design and structual control of metal NCs/SiO2 nanocomposites,and could stimulate more research interests in the applications of met-al NCs-based hybrids.
metal nanoclustersstabilityluminescencenanocompositesilica
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